I would like to thank Simon and Schuster and Anne from Random Things Tours for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Simon and Schuster

Published - Out Now

Price - £16.99 hardback £8.99 Kindle eBook

That’s the one.
That’s the girl who’s going to die.
 
I didn’t believe in the Rule of Three. Not at first.
It was just one of those urban myths you hear about all the time.
A story my boyfriend told me about a girl cursed by the number three.
A girl whose parents had killed themselves after her sibling had died in an accident.
Which meant that she was doomed to die too because that’s the Rule of Three.
 
Bad things always happen in threes, they say, and they are right.
Because it’s happening again.
But this time the curse is coming for me.
And worst of all?
It’s coming for you, too.

I am a totally rational person. Butttttttt……I don’t though walk under ladders; I never leave shoes on the table and every now and then I think that I’m on a streak of bad luck. Humans as a Doctor once said are great at seeing patterns that are not there…or are they? Our ability to think that we are influenced by outside forces is a rich ground for spiritualists, astrologists and all sorts of little rituals we embrace. But such beliefs can be overpowering and perhaps self prophesising. In Sam Ripley’s ambitious thriller The Rule of Three a new urban legend is created with deadly consequences for a succession of characters.

Amy lost her sister prior to her fifteenth birthday, then her parents nearly three years later; all in tragic circumstances, and now she is is convinced she too is cursed. She writes down the increasingly strange and hazy events happening in her life as she tries to self-medicate by drugs and yet starts to explore the power of the occult and curses. Strange accidents are escalating and Amy feels time is running out. Ila is normally a very hardworking student but then she too hears of the Rule of Three and sees parallels in her own tragic backstory. She starts to research an urban legend, lose her connections with her friends and loved ones and experiences strange destructive dreams. These are but two of the women who feel the relentless pull of this mystery but it tends to result in death. Can anyone escape it?

Ripley has created an unusual relay race of thriller that edges close tot he borderland of horror. It is reflecting how seemingly rational people can suddenly believe some very strange things. What works for me is how with Amy and Ila while very different we see how the concept of the Rule gets past their defences and hits deep. Amy whose words start the novel is quite an initially unlikeable character, happy to discuss their drugtaking, various strng opinions and musings on life - but really they’re your typical yoiung person putting ona front and also hising a lot of trauma. Likewise Ila who initially in her sections feels very logicala nd pratcical is also creating a front to mask her own pain and loss. The Rule of Three is the impressive blade that gets through that wall and hurts deep. It is a tlae of obsession and losing yourself in fear which can make you prey to all sorts of things. Ripley also as the story runs to its surprising conclusion notes how people can do very very dangerous things based on certainty that when looked more objectively may not be there. Or more perhaps the right person knows how to influence those thoughts into dangerous directions.

What slightly doesnt work as well for me is Ripley’s graps of characetr voice. I find each of the narrative choices used tend to sound a little much the same. We get each charcetr going off on detours of personal thoughts or oinsights into people that for me blurred the narrators intot he same person. What works for Amy who does feel trapped in their thoughts a lot of the time didn’t quite gel as much for other characters.

The Ruke of Three is a promising dark thriller with shades of horror and Ripley understands how to create an unusual tale using human behaviour at its strangest to create a very elaborate mystery. An author I will be watching out for in the future